03/31/2015
Flying the airlines has not always meant connecting the entire world in a single day. Nor did it mean flight delays, security lines or baggage carousels. At one time, flying to a destination was an adventure and a whole new perspective on travel.
That sensation is coming back as a rare 1928 Ford Tri-Motor 5-AT airliner, operated by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in Oshkosh, Wis., makes a stop locally as part of its nationwide tour. The aircraft will be at Savannah Aviation, 34 Hangar Road from April 30th to May 3rd. All are invited to see and fly in this historic aircraft, which is owned by Liberty Aviation Museum of Port Clinton, Ohio, and operated under a lease agreement with EAA for the national tours.
Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford, who had already changed America through his automobiles, also had a vision for moving people through flight. He saw a time when people would travel across America in airplanes at speed surpassing the fastest railroad.
“Preposterous!” some uttered. After all, Charles Lindbergh had only two years before survived a harrowing 33-hour solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean and became a worldwide celebrity for doing it. The idea of the average person being able to fly to a distant destination on a scheduled flight … well, that was just a dream.
Ford was driven to prove his concept, though. Although fewer than 200 of the Ford Tri-Motors were built over a seven-year period before it was overtaken by newer technology, it showed that passenger flights were possible on a grander scale than ever imagined.
“What Henry Ford did was bring the possibility of powered flight to the public, beyond the barnstorming and pioneer era that defined aviation to that point,” said Sean Elliott, an EAA vice president who is also an experienced pilot of the Tri-Motor. “His position as an influential industrial leader brought credibility to the nation of passenger air service.”
While you might consider today’s air travel less than luxurious, accommodations aboard the Tri-Motor were less so. But no one cared – it was the adventure of it all. There were only 10 straight-back seats, no more than parlor chairs, really. Passengers had a straight-in view of the cockpit. And the roar of the three-engines was loud, but also reassuring. Three engines, in Ford’s view, were safer than one for long-haul flights.
The Ford Tri-Motor appearing locally was No. 8 of the aircraft’s run, coming off the line in December 1928. It served for Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) and later Transcontinental and Western Air, a forerunner of TWA. The airplane then had its own adventure flying as a tour aircraft over the Grand Canyon and Boulder Dam in 1937, then as an airliner in Honduras and various services in Mexico through the 1940s. After a lengthy period in storage during the 1950s and early ’60s, the Tri-Motor was purchased in 1964 by William Harrah of Harrah’s Hotel and Casinos fame, who restored the aircraft and had it flown beginning in 1971 before displaying it with his renowned automobile collection in Reno, Nevada.
After Harrah’s death in the mid-1980s, the aircraft was auctioned off to an Idaho owner and eventually found its way to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, in 1990. In 1996, the airplane was again restored and returned to flying condition. In 2014, Ed Patrick and the Liberty Aviation Museum obtained the aircraft. That group completed restoration updates before working with EAA to fly the historic aircraft to locations throughout North America, as EAA had extensive experience touring its own Ford Tri-Motor.
This rare Ford Tri-Motor spends it ninth decade of existence much as it started life: carrying passengers on an aerial adventure unlike anything else available today. Today, however, instead of showing the promise of what lies ahead in aviation, it harkens back to a pioneering era in flight. It welcomes all to join in the fun while the airplane is at Savannah. You can find out more and reserve your own seat on the airplane by going to www.FlyTheFord.org
